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The Black Patch Tobacco War trials The Black Patch consisted primarily of Robertson and Montgomery counties in Tennessee and several counties in Kentucky. Dark fired tobacco was the staple crop. Principal markets were at Springfield and Clarksville in our state and at Hopkinsville, Princeton and Russellville north of the border. This was also known as the “Pennyrile” area, so called because of an aromatic mint plant (pennyroyal) which flourishes there. Buck Duke, the guy who founded Duke University, monopolized the tobacco trade. Farmers did it his way or the highway. Resentful over falling prices, some of those farmers formed in 1904 The Dark Tobacco District Planters’ Protective Association of Kentucky and Tennessee, Incorporated. Innocent enough at first, the movement turned ominous in October 1905 at the Stainback Schoolhouse in Robertson County. There the “Possum Hunters” organized a vigilante Night Rider band, the “Silent Brigade.” They vowed to fight the Duke Tobacco Trust and the “Hill Billy” farmers who continued to deal with that conglomerate. Raiders burned tobacco warehouses at Princeton (Dec. 1, 1906), Hopkinsville (Dec. 7, 1907), and Russellville (Jan. 3, 1908). The Night Riders also whipped fellow citizens, forcing them to flee Kentucky. Relief in state courthouses was impossible. A defense lawyer during voir dire would adjust his collar; a similar adjustment by a juror guaranteed at least a hung jury. But potential plaintiffs were now citizens of other states who could sue in federal district courts based on diversity jurisdiction. That’s what a pretty and feisty lady named Mary Lou Hollowell did at Paducah. She and her husband suffered injuries inflicted by Night Riders in May 1907. Following a mistrial, a favorable verdict was returned. Many other refugees also filed federal civil actions. The most famous Kentucky criminal trial was Commonwealth v. David Amoss. Dr. Amoss was general of the Silent Brigade. He was prosecuted at Hopkinsville March 6-16, 1911, for the earlier raid on that town. After three hours of deliberation the jury acquitted the defendant. I have researched three related Tennessee trials. Gardner v. State is reported at 121 Tenn. 684, 120 S.W. 816 (1908). John Gardner and Walter Hunt were private guards at a tobacco factory in Clarksville. On the evening of March 9-10, 1908, word came that Night Riders were headed in that direction. Gardner and Hunt were posted as sentries at the intersection of Trough Springs Road and Woodson Road, just south of what is now Exit 11 on Interstate 24. The raiders had gone to Port Royal toward the northeast rather than west to Clarksville. As approximately 30 of the band returned to the intersection about 2 a.m., Gardner and Hunt opened fire. Voyn[1] Bennett was killed and his brother Earl wounded. The killers were quickly put to trial Sept. 8 – Oct. 3, convicted of second degree murder, and sentenced to 10 years confinement. The Supreme Court reversed on Dec. 17 for failure to grant motions for change of venue to a county outside the Black Patch. Defendants had filed 137 affidavits in support of their motions, with no opposing affidavits from the state. A second ground for reversal was exclusion of terrorist acts by the Night Rider organization. It was proper that the plaintiffs in error should be permitted to show and develop before the jury all of the facts, so as to give that body a clear and comprehensive idea of the organization plaintiffs in error had to deal with–to trace its origin and history, prove its purposes, its method of operations, and its spirit and nature. By this means the jury would be placed in the position of the plaintiffs in error and see the situation as they saw it and appreciate their position when confronted at night with a superior force of such men. At Nashville on Dec. 5, 1911, the judge directed a verdict of acquittal as requested by the prosecutor. Rhinehart v. State, 122 Tenn. 698, 127 S.W. 445 (1909), involved a Night Rider who was with Voyn Bennett on the fatal evening. But the trial of Marcellus Rhinehart and four other defendants stemmed from the murder of Rufus Hunter near the Montgomery-Cheatham County border on June 6, 1908. Ironically, although Hunter was loyal to the Planters’ Protective Association, he publicly denounced Night Riders as hurting the cause. The trial began on June 24 and ended on July 17, 1909. Only Rhinehart was convicted; he was sentenced to hang. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the bill of exceptions was filed too late. The court claimed to have examined the transcript anyway and described the murder as “a crime, not only against the law of the land, but against civilization as well.” Gov. Malcolm Patterson commuted the death sentence to life in prison. On Christmas Eve 1924 Gov. Austin Peay, one of Rhinehart’s prosecutors, commuted the sentence to time served. Another Tennessee trial was a civil action filed in the U.S. District court at Nashville styled Thomas Menees v. James T. Matthews, et al., the alii being 28 other Tennesseans and one Kentuckian. Formerly of Cedar Hill in Robertson County, Menees now held diverse citizenship in Missouri. On July 16, 1907, at Adams, Night Riders had dynamited a wheat threshing machine owned by Menees because he was a Hill Billy. The trial began on Oct. 24, 1911. I have obtained portions of the transcript and clerk’s file, including the testimonies of the plaintiff and Robert S. Warfield, a Night Rider who passed information to Hill Billies. On Nov. 3 the jury within five hours returned a verdict for $15,000 ($1,500 actual damages plus $13,500 punitives) against 27 of the defendants. District Judge (later Justice) Edward T. Sanford of Knoxville suggested a remittitur of $7,500 ($1,500 actual plus $6,000 punitives). There was no appeal, so Menees ended up with a $7,500 judgment (approximately $145,000 in 2006 dollars). See Menees v. Matthews, 197 F. 633 (M.D. Tenn., June 22, 1912). Although arguably founded from lofty motives and economic necessity, the Black Patch Planters’ Protective Association soon descended into violence. Such appears to be the history of all vigilante assemblies, including the Sevier County White Caps and the Reelfoot Lake Night Riders. As Robert Penn Warren wrote: “The good Lord never got any thousand or so men together for any purpose without a liberal assortment of sons of bitches thrown in.”[2] • • • Notes
• • • Many kind people have responded to my requests for information. Especially helpful was Tim Henson at the City of Adams Museum. Tennessee Bar Journal
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